Tokugawa Orukame
Tokugawa Orukame Appearance Old/New *Age: 2706, Once appeared about 100 years old, now about 30 *Height: Was 5'6", now 6' *Eyes: Bright Blue *Skin: Asian decent *Hair: Once white and gray, now dark rich black *Clothing: In the garb of a soul reaper with a badge marking him as an 8th squad unseated soldier *Physique: Physically strong, muscle and a few scars from past battles can be seen. Orukame's Stats *Strength: 20 +5 *Dexterity: 10 0 *Constitution: 12 +2 *Intelligence: 10 0 *Wisdom: 26 +8 *Charisma: 14 +2 HP: 28 RP: 30 Total Modifiers: 17/35 Skills / Kido Bakudou: ''' 0 Seijiro 1 Sai 4 Hainawa 5 Tessaheki 8 Geki 9 Seki 15 Barrier bandage 16 Coffin 19 Sekisho 20 Konsutorakutu Shuufuku 21 Sekienton 26 Kyakko 29 Akegeki 30 Shitotsu Sansen 36 Akushuu no Fukaku 37 Tsuriboshi 39 Enkosen 39 Mindgrasp 40 Kikyuu Fuujikomeru 44 Keikyoku no Kousen 53 Earth Dance 56 Iron Shrine Boundaries '''Zanjutsu Rank 1: Ryoku Suraisu Tora Whirlwind Cleave Washi Rank 2: Hikkaku no Tora Hakuda Rank 1: Jab Soul Wave Strike Hadou 0 Osake 0 Unlimited Candy Works 1 Shou Other Abilities Shunpo Basic Barrier Slip Reiatsu Mastery: Light Basic Hell Butterfly Mastery Zanpakuto Spirit Genbu is a mythical turtle god also known as the Tortoise General, which represents the North, and the winter season. An unusual being, it has a large shell, and is quite large in physical size, with the tail of a serpent. The turtle itself is very stubborn in it's ways, but is very wise, and can be somewhat aggressive. While Orukame isn't very aggressive now, he most certainly was in life, being a warlord during Japan's early history. This turtle represents his current wisdom and wishes, to protect, while still retaining the aggression and lethality that he did in life through the serpent. The two don't always see eye to eye about things, but generally can get along. Orukame especially dislikes the serpent and it's poison, thinking causing that pain not to be taken lightly. His inner world is a large ocean with very cold waters. Often times the old man finds himself walking on top of the waters, though he can look down he doesn't see that he's standing on something. This is actually Genbu, and while in his many centuries he has seen Genbu maybe three or four times, he has never known to be travelling on his back. Nor has he ever spoken to Genbu when he's been made apparent, always feeling it just wasn't the right time. Genbu is slow to trust and this is why in all the hundreds of years they have been together, neither has struck up conversation, nor has he been able to hear anything. There are for the most part no real objects of note apart from the cold waters, though Genbu protects him from these perilous depths. Often the man spends his hours here in meditation or thought. Genbu's primary form is a cane sword when not released, as odd as it is. It's unique in this regard, but it doesn't give him special powers. The sword came to him at this appearance when he was very old and still living in the mountains. It was once thought to him as a gift from the Kami. In it's released state it takes on a totally different appearance, with large plates up his right arm ending in a claw, as well as the other side with a 'shield' of two long sword like blades on his side. It's a difficult weapon set to use, representing Genbu (Xuanwu) as the snake (The gauntlet) and the tortoise (The bladed guard) Story of Earning Shikai Tokugawa Orukame is a truly ancient spirit, one which died in approximately 689 BCE, in what is now known as Japan. In life he was a cunning warrior, and a warlord that used his wisdom and his skill to survive, and to help his people long before the concept of the Samurai could have ever existed. His skills with spear and bow were unmatched by many, and he grew to be a strong and noble warrior. He died as a relatively young man in battle, which brought him to another large and important part of his life; death. This new world seemed familiar to him, but he could remember little about the times he had in life, if anything at all. His skill and his power wasn't all that impressive by most standards, indeed he never even created a zanpakuto and wouldn't for many years. In this new world he found himself a place in the hearts and minds of people in some relatively poor districts (Though certainly not the poorest) where he would do work for them, and assist them in their everyday lives. He married and lived what most would consider a very standard life, and all was well for the then young Tokugawa Orukame. For about 700 years, he was enjoying life. His wife died, in about 90CE, to a spiritual disease that eventually weakened her to the point where she passed away from him. Orukame was saddened by this, and felt that his normal life somehow lost all meaning when he lost her. Food was tasteless, life wasn't as enjoyable, and it was this that caused him to start walking off, to the poorest districts and beyond, into the most dangerous parts of the Rukongai. He did battle against many, and with a makeshift spear he often did battle, killing if he needed to, wandering to make his way far out, away from where many would consider home. He eventually made his way deep into the forests, and then deep into the mountains at the very end of the Rukongai, far beyond where any would tread, he made his home as an ascetic monk. He sought the beauty in the known world, and in the natural beauty of life around him. He needed to be in touch with such things again, and he found peace, wisdom, and comfort in this. He contemplated life, and death, and what it meant to be filled with joy, and soon he found beauty and happiness again in his lonely hermitage. Often he took deep breaths of the morning mist, ran up the sides of mountains, and sought enlightenment through the beauty of the world. He found such enlightenment, though he did not realize it himself. Months turned to years, years to decades, and decades to centuries. By 1100CE, Orukame was different. His beard reached his feet, and he was getting old. While still strong, he had spent a great deal of his life alone in a hard ascetic lifestyle, and he found that he soon needed assistance walking. It was here that, unknown to him, his life changed forever. One day when bowing to the north in meditation and prayer, he saw something familiar to him. At least, it felt familiar to him in some regard, as if it had been there before. A massive tortoise with large spines on its back and the head of a dragon, with a long tail of a snake coiling about its back. It appeared to him with a vicious cold wind, and as Orukame was in awe at the creature he'd never seen before, he felt as if he should approach, as it roared out through the night sky. Orukame touched the beast, and awoke from his meditation, sitting alone on the north face of the mountain... a cane in his lap. He didn't know the significance, but he could feel this wasn't an ordinary object, indeed nobody had placed it there so far as he knew. He had often guessed the nature of the world, but this confounded him, he assumed it was the workings of the universe, something that it wanted him to have. He drew the blade for the first time, somewhat unsure about it. He had given up the path of violence for a reason, he wanted to do no more harm. For many hundreds of years he contemplated this blade and its meaning. He felt his meditations take him to a new place, on where he was on a freezing cold, open ocean, walking around on the surface. He felt the sting and the chill of the air, but he pressed on, constantly moving forward to some unknown location, being drawn there. In his meditations, each and every day he continued his travel across the oceans. There were only four times in his life, for almost nine centuries after getting the blade, that old Orukame had ever seen the spirit once again. One time, almost two hundred years after attaining the cane during his meditations, he heard the howling of a terrible wailing creature, almost as if it were in agony, suffering. Orukame didn't know what the Hollows were, or what he was hearing in his meditations was in fact the far off wailings of a monster in the Soul Society. It was this day that Orukame felt the roar of the tortoise again, and this time he was standing in the water, as the large spirit stood before him. The two didn't speak, they merely looked to one another. Each time the pained wail sounded, the roar of the tortoise would fill the air, shaking the very world around Orukame's ears. He could not hear anything apart from this, but he felt the wishes, or perhaps the emotions of the odd being. The being wanted battle, and Orukame could feel it. This was not his place however not anymore. He would merely feel the emotions and let them ride through him. This next meeting happened two hundred years after the day of wailing. The third time that he had seen the tortoise was on a very cold winters day. As always, Orukame had found himself wandering the mountains. They were treacherous, and he had grown too used to being here. Forgetting that his age was catching up to him, he slipped while on the way to his meditations on the north mountain, and fell down the rock face, hitting his head and falling into unconsciousness. When he awoke in his dreamlike state, he found himself drowning under the water. So hard he reached out, his body too weak to pull him to the surface, he was trying to breathe, but found himself unable to. How he wished in his travels over the ocean he would never have to feel the suffering of this day. Orukame was about to lose his ability to hold his breath, about to take in the cold oceans water that would fill his lungs and end his life. He felt the cold, terrible chill of the northern oceans numbing all of his form. He felt death... until he saw the figure. He found himself being carried on the back of the large tortoise, above the waves once more, the snake coiled around him almost like some kind of blanket, as they continued down the same path that they always did. Still, the two shared no words, but Orukame felt comforted, as if this was the place he was meant to be all along. When he opened his eyes that day, he was almost suffering from hypothermia, and a bloodied head. He was able to get himself back up to his home, carved into the side of the mountain, and rest, warming himself by the fires. He knew the guardian spirit had protected him, and saved him from death. He said his prayers that night to the spirits of the world, and thanked with deep sincerity the Tortoise that he had seen, and who had helped him so dearly. He only hoped he could repay it somehow. Within enough time, he found himself on the same trek over the ocean, heading farther north. Now, he could make out a very distant peak, and he hoped he was getting closer, and so he continued his travels. Perhaps this journey over the past four hundred years was finally coming to an end, and hopefully a new journey to begin. Five hundred more years passed, every day Orukame going farther... until finally after so long, he reached the island in the distance. He was excited, this was everything he had worked for, and as he climbed, he saw at the top, after an hour's way up, the large tortoise waiting for him. The two looked to one another, and as Orukame examined what was beyond... it was nothing but a cloudy haze, and barren ocean. This couldn't be so, could it? Orukame was crushed, how hard he had worked to come to where he was, and yet he was no closer. He truly cherished the journey, but what was it all for? In his disappointment, he turned and looked behind him, to the travel he had walked, and he saw something that put a tight hold over his heart. When he finally turned around, something he hadn't done for all these centuries, nearly a millennia, he saw people. The very ones he loved and helped. His wife at the front of them, and the many others of lives he had touched when he was so young. All of them, had been following him, and it was now that the old man finally understood what his foolishness had been all along. He had run away to try and find peace and to find beauty. In his foolishness, he shut himself away when he was hurt, when in truth, the journey only mattered if the people were there with you. He realized that these people helped raise him to where he was, supported him on this journey, and made him who he is today. He had run away to not feel pain, without realizing that the joy that comes with pain made life so worth living and this brought tears of anguish and joy to the now ancient mans eyes. He cried because he had finally learned what he had sought to learn. He cried because he realized what the spirit needed of him. It was time to rejoin the world once again, to take what he had learned, to be with others once again. He heard a knock on the door to his temple just then, rousing him from his meditations, the old man slowly got up, and opened the door to see two tired and armed men, asking politely for a place to stay. The old man somehow knew that he had reached his goal today because something was supposed to happen here. He had lost his ability to speak, and lost language, but slowly over the course of the day it had come back to him. The two men, he learned were soldiers who helped protect people from monsters. As one examined his cane, they learned the old man had potential to be a soul reaper. Despite his age, it seems, they promised there could be a place for him if he wanted it. Orukame knew what the spirit wanted of him, and so he agreed. How invigorating it was to be around people again. Orukame found he fit right in, despite his age. He enjoyed speaking with the younger people, and seemed to make some friends, and mentors in people who wanted to help him develop. In return, he offered wisdom where he could, trying to cheer them up, or make people smile. He knew that there were a lot of people here who could use his help, as much as he needed theirs. Orukame learned and understood that this was where he was meant to be almost right away. After his graduation, he met many people he would consider friends, and shortly after, he found himself face to face more often with the unusual tortoise, only now, the old man could hear it's words. "You have come a long way Orukame, and I am pleased to see that you have realized where your true place is. I do not select just anyone to come to... and I came because I felt that you needed me more than anyone, just as I need you. Only those who have really understood pain, and joy can really wield me, and you have lived a long life. One, which I hope will continue." The giant tortoise spoke to him in a powerful, noble voice. The voice of the snake came as well. The same being, they were two parts of the same personality. "We wish to fight the hollows, this is our purpose, to become strong and defend, through displays of force. We are a cunning thing, and we are a strong general indeed, but you are too afraid to put us to work, steel on steel. This displeases us". Orukame had come to dislike the view point of the serpent. It was a powerful one, but it's purpose was the attack, something that Orukame didn't like very much. "I am not one to cause harm, and your venom and your fangs do just that. You cause pain needlessly, and I understand the importance of being able to do battle, but I cannot agree with the way you want me to do things. I do wish to protect others however, as you have said great spirit." The tortoise understood his peaceful ways, but to appease the snake would be a task indeed. The tortoise knew that Orukame would try and help others, and it was this real need to protect not just physically, but as well as protect others emotionally that he liked the old man. Orukame had begun to help work on others confidence, to help them cheer up and smile, even if he wasn't the best warrior, he was willing to protect and help. Often times this caused the serpent and Orukame to argue quite often, the two not getting along, with the tortoise understanding both sides and remaining neutral to the discussions, hoping that Orukame understood what he was failing to see about the purpose of the snake, and that side of this spirit. Orukame felt as if he really knew the purpose, that pain was all that came from the snake itself. one day during the meditations however, Orukame was put through something he hadn't expected. He saw the spirit, almost separated it looked like, with the tortoise being apart from the snake. Orukame saw a victim being held hostage by the serpent part of the tortoise, with the tortoise unable to do much to stop it. "Stop that this instant!" The image being attacked was but a figment of Orukame's will, it did not truly exist, it merely represented one of the people who he had considered one of his closer friends as a soul reaper, and she was doing battle against the snake of the tortoise, and not being able to win. The serpent replied with its chuckle "And what will you do about it Orukame? Your will to protect is admirable, that is the purpose of us. What you fail to understand is that your wish to protect without violence doesn't work against creatures whose sole purpose it is to kill. You say that you will raise your blade against an enemy to protect others, but I can feel the cowardice that you hold in your heart. You feel you're too old to stop me, or any other enemy from killing those close to you. That is why you need me, and because you cannot beat me you shall not wield us!" The snake would hiss violently out as it struck down the woman that Orukame had been mentored by, and taught by almost since his first days. The old man drew his blade, as the tortoise watched on. The serpent was right, Orukame was too afraid to attack, he felt his skill wasn't quite enough. He hadn't thought about the prospect of needing to attack as a means to defend others, at least, in certain situations. As the snake went in for the killing blow, against the image of his friend, the old man formed a barrier around her, and attacked, his sword outwards, leading with a binding technique to wrap with the snake. As Orukame battled the serpent tail of the tortoise, he realized how wrong he had been. This was just another part of the will to defend, but a lesser part. The snake was vital, and it was strong, but it was a part of himself he had been suppressing. As the battle heated farther, kidou was thrown and blades and fang came out as Orukame refused to let the serpent harm his friend. As soon as the snake bit into Orukame's body however, it pulled away. The old man was willing to fight, the old man was willing to protect even if it meant violence. And to the powerful tortoise, the Black Tortoise of the North, this was what it was trying to teach. He had the patience, and the understanding needed to realize that it was the people around him that he cared for that gave him the most beautiful reason to live and exist. He understood now too that his purpose was to defend them, and to protect them as best he could. But he had not demonstrated his willingness until now to do so, to fight as needed if only to save another life. The old man seemed not to like this prospect, but he understood its purpose and significance. The tortoise and the snake spoke in unison to him now. "I am known as the Black Tortoise of the North. My name kind hearted, and valiant defender, is Genbu. I shall work alongside you, and together we will protect joy, and protect life. That is your purpose as it is our purpose. And now that you understand what is expected of you, you will become the soldier that you need to be. We shall continue to speak... friend. And so the two, despite some differences, gained the respect needed to work beside one another, and even to put aside their differences in understanding to help protect the ones that the old man had come to love, even in such a short time. He would prove he had a place here, as a valiant defender of the Gotei 13. Shikai Abilities Innate Chitinous Shielding RP Genbu allows old man Orukame to protect himself, and those around him with a shield that he may grant to himself or another at will. DF Grants +1 to defense rolls, and 1d4+1 DR. 1 of the DR is unable to be pierced. At the top of the turn order, Genbu may freely grant these bonuses to a target that he desires removing the bonuses from himself and granting it to an ally. If the target already has static damage reduction, this merely grants a +1 to defense, and +2 to their existing DR. His power may also be granted to barriers, made by himself or another. Active The Serpent's Bite RP RP Genbu's spirit manifest the deadliest of snakes, and the poison that they may apply infects all of the bindings that he may use against a target. DF On hit causes all of his bakudou to inflict 2 damage to a target ignoring dr, and 2 damage per every turn they fail to escape from the binds. If the bind already causes damage this only increases the output by 1. Active Spiked Tortoises Shell RP to activate use per battle RP Like a snapper turtle, he is able to form a barrier that protects the area he designs and make certain that only those he wishes to enter may pass freely inside without harm. The barrier is layered, in that as the spikes are worn away the inside of the turtle's hide is still sturdy, but also regenerates when it is injured like a living barrier. DF Barrier has 20 HP plus Orukame's Int/wis bonus. (I.E. Up to a maximum of 20+20= 40 HP) The first 15 health of the barrier is designed to keep target's inside or outside, for each failed attempt to enter, or for each hit against the barrier this deals 3 damage to the target piercing 3 DR. After the barrier drops below that, it loses it's damage return as the spikes are exposed and the inner layer appears. This grants 1d2+1 regeneration to the barrier. Because of the nature of the barrier, it cannot be effected by degeneration, poison, or double healing as reiatsu is pure and unable to be blemished by outside sources. The barrier itself lasts 5 rounds, Orukame may also sacrifice his offensive turn to maintain the barrier but may still defend for others as normal.